Hemingway On Stage

Brian Gordon Sinclair

Playwright

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Hemingway On Stage

Update

Sunday, October 06, 2002 8:07 PM

Idaho Trip

Greetings from Canada:

My final research destination for Hemingway On Stage was Ketchum/Sun Valley, Idaho. Thanks to Susan Beegle's suggestion, I was able to contact Marsha Bellavance-Johnson who is the author of the Hemingway In Idaho guidebook (as well as Hemingway in Key West and many others). She did indeed become my guide, in person and through her fine book. Aside from sharing a fine dinner with me and her husband at the Sawtooth Club, Marsha took me to the Sun Valley Writers' Conference where I discovered that my teaching credentials gained me complimentary admission to the lectures. A particular thrill, for an old Irishman like myself was meeting Frank McCourt and presenting him with an audio book copy of my last play, Easter Rising: The Last Words Of Patrick Pearse. I also learned quite a bit about a new play to be directed by Mike Nichols in New York in the near future.

While in Idaho, I used Marsha's guidebook and visited most of the Hemingway sights including The Casino, Christiania's, Sun Valley Lodge, Bald Mountain, Trail Creek Cabin, The Hemingway Memorial, The Ski and Heritage Museum, The Community Library, the Ezra Pound display in the Pioneer Museum at Hailey, Hemingway house, and, of course, the gravesite.

I was particularly impressed with the people at the Heritage Museum and the Community Library. Jeanie Johnston was kind enough to present me with a very special local photo of Ernest Hemingway and I am certain that I will use it in the slide portion of my show. Wouldn't it be grand to be able to arrange a charity show of my play to help develop the Hemingway display at the museum. At the library, Chris Millspaugh, who had just celebrated a birthday, allowed me to spend hours browsing through Hemingway's F.B.I. files and several photos that were new to me. Some of this material will also find its way into my play.

Thank heavens Marsha sent me to Hailey. The Pound display in the Pioneer Museum contained a wonderful synopsis of Ezra's life as well as a superb death mask. A few blocks away, I was able to view the restoration work going on in the Pound childhood home and a short block from this site was St. Charles Catholic Church were Hemingway advised a group of students to be positive and to avoid the possibility of failure.

Later, when I searched for the Hemingway Memorial, I found that the road sign had gone missing. Took me ages to find the walk-in path that leads to the memorial. This quiet, lovely, contemplative spot soon eased my frustration. Hope someone fixes the sign problem soon.

One very special day was spent riding in the mountains on a beautiful chestnut horse. After the first thrill of sitting astride this fine animal and trying not to look like "a sack of potatoes", I found that the trail had led me higher than I had realized. The clear, clean smell of a forest of pine, the still, green of the lake below, blue sky and white cloud rising out of the mountain peaks...and me, sitting in the centre...a centre that can and does hold. Believe me when I say that I want to return.

As I conclude my reading and prepare to set pen to paper, I am filled with fond memories of all the places that I have visited: Oak Park/Chicago, Walloon Lake/Horton's Bay?Petoskey, Key West, Cuba, Spain and Idaho. Alas, I wish my budget could include a visit to Paris and Italy. I will have to rely on memories of my past visits to France and on books alone for Italy for I have never been there.

Great stories, great photos, and a great life - I hope I'm up to the challenge of putting them all together. Whatever happens, I will be in Key West during the 2003 Hemingway Days Festival to present the best play that I possibly can. Behind my acting will be a pair of large projection screens where photos from Hemingway's life will dissolve on and off to accentuate my performance. Recorded music and voice-overs will also be used throughout the presentation. Wish me luck and don't hesitate to contact me for information. I will continue to send the occasional update which I hope you will forward to interested parties. Don't forget, all proceeds in Key West go to the scholarship fund for aspiring writers.

Kindest regards

Brian

Greetings from The "Children Of Erin" Theatre Co.

A few weeks ago I traveled to Madrid and Pamplona to continue the research for my proposed play, Hemingway On Stage: The Road To Freedom. While in Spain, I had the pleasure of meeting two of the finest gentlemen I have ever known, Stephen Drake-Jones and Thomas Entwistle. These men took me under their very erudite wings and revealed the secrets of Spain to me.

Stephen Drake-Jones is the Chairman of the Wellington Society and one of the world's leading experts on the Duke of Wellington.

He is also an authority on The Prado, bullfighting, gourmet repasts, and all the haunts of Ernest Hemingway. I might also add that when I was attacked by Romanian gypsies in El Rastro, the street market, his bravery and boldness helped me to fight them off. It was a lesson well learned since I was attacked a second time when Stephen was not with me and, once again, using his technique, I scared the thieves away.

How wonderful it was to see the same paintings that Hemingway had viewed and enjoyed. Stephen had led art tours for many years and was able to fully explain the works of El Greco, Valazques, and Goya. From elongated saints and vivid colours, through the inbred deformed face of Philip IV, to my favourites...The Third Of May 1808: The Mass Execution at Principe Pio and the Black Paintings, possibly representative of Goya's nightmares and his abhorrence of a corrupt society.

Twelve bulls died for me (and a few thousand other people). Stephen has been an aficionado of the bullfights for almost thirty years and was able to explain every aspect of the spectacle. He was, in fact, able to anticipate every move of the President of the Corrida and would tell me seconds beforehand when the President would signal with a handkerchief for such moments as the exit of the picador. After the fight, I was treated to the less than appetite stirring scene of the slaughter of the bulls. In a totally professional and speedy manner, they were dealt with prior to their journey to restaurants and the poor. Later, when I attended another bullfight by myself and occupied an excellent barrera seat, I found that I lost any aversion that I might have had to the spectacle and by the end of the evening was cheering and clapping with the Madrilenos.

Stephen also showed me Hemingway's Madrid. As I looked up at the impressive height of the Telefonica building, I could almost imagine Hemingway at the top writing, "They are bombing Madrid. I can see the German planes and..." Chicote's with the famous knocking door of the prostitutes, The Valencia sherry bar where stories were gained with the price of a bottle, Botin's famous suckling pig, to the headquarters of Franco's infamous secret police...all these and many more turned Madrid and the Gran Via into a museum of the Spanish Civil War.

Thomas Entwistle is considered to be the leading authority on the battlefields of the Civil War and it was with great pleasure that I marched up Suicide Hill with him, stood in the actual trenches and caves of the war and even found a few pieces of shrapnel. Tom showed me where one member of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade had his ashes spread as I began to understand the depth of this great fight for freedom.

Tom is the man who arranged the reunions of the ALB and reunited them years later to commemorate their part in the Spanish Civil War. Today the battlefields are in danger of being overrun by developers with no sense of history. Is there any way we can help?

In the meantime, Charlie Nesser (deceased) of the Lincoln Brigade is reputed to have written a play about his experiences in Spain. Hopefully, Tom and I can track it down and arrange for some form of presentation in the future.

Should you plan to visit Spain, I can think of no better guides than Stephen and Tom. They have both helped me immeasurably and I believe that Hemingway On Stage will be much better because of their contribution. Research is on target and I expect to have a completed script early in the new year. Slides and soundtracks will be created while I block and memorize for a workshop in June. After the workshop, I expect to be in good shape to debut the play at The Hemingway Days Festival in Key West. Don't forget that all proceeds go to the scholarship fund for aspiring writers in the area schools.

Should you wish to contact Stephan Drake-Jones and Thomas Entwistle, you can do so through the Wellington Society.

Stay tuned for my Idaho update, coming soon to a computer near you. Thanks again to Stephen and Tom.